5 Handy tips for an odourless air conditioner

Summers can turn into a bigger menace if your home air conditioner spreads bad odour instead of clean and pure air. With time, air conditioners may gather dirt or grow mould due to various reasons, rendering the air conditioner's work meaningless.

Fret not, here are some simple tips you could follow to rid your AC of the annoying odour in order to get the best out of your unit. Read on to find out which of these tips can work best for your air conditioning unit:

• Check the unit for foul smell

As alarming as this may sound, often the cause of the foul smell emanating from your AC is due to dead animals like a rat, gecko, baby squirrel, etc. Another possible source could be decaying vegetation.

To find out if this is the case, call a technician who will open the surface panels of the unit and look for the Problem. After removing all the remnants of it, he will clean the coil with a foaming coil cleaner and once it dries completely, he will screw back the components carefully. Your summer friend is back to life!

• Flush the odour from the drain line

If a dead animal is not the cause, the technician will check the condensation drain line for any possible faults. After locating the line in your AC, he will take it out and using undiluted distilled white vinegar, he will clean the line to get rid of any mold or fungi that may have found residence in the line. Allowing it to dry completely can prevent any further mold or mildew to form.

• Clean the drain pan

Pretty much the same process, but only in a window AC. Unlike mounted AC unit, a window AC does not have a condensation drain line; instead, there is a drain pan or tray. Use diluted bleach solution or undiluted white vinegar to rid this tray off the bothersome smell. You may also use a soft brush for a thorough cleaning. Let the tray dry completely before you put it back into the unit.

• Filter out the odour from the filter

With extensive use, the filter may accumulate grime and dust which may, in turn, trap bad smell from the outside environment. So, take out the filter and wash it with diluted bleach solution containing 10 parts water, or warm soapy water. In case the filters are non-washable, you can get them replaced at regular intervals.

• Filter It Out

The active carbon filter is the most effective filter that filters out common household odours such as cigarette smoke, garbage odour, pet odour and other unpleasant odours. Apart from active carbon filters, vitamin C filter and catechin filter also help eliminate bad smells.

If your novice cleaning skills don't seem to work their magic, simply contact the air conditioner maintenance personnel for a more thorough cleaning and inspection for the cause of the annoying odour.